what would you do with it..

so tony campolo came to my house today.. he co-authored a book with my dad called adventures in missing the point and speaks all over the country and runs lots and lots and lots of different programs to help the poor and educate people around the world. I had the pleasure of sharing dinner with him and then attending some open question service our church held. So we were at dinner and the city of Camden came up in conversation to which I brought up my visit to the camden house with chris haw and his crew and how amazing that program was and how it was really good to see them living in this horrible place and enduring and accomplishing so much. so tony is like... we have a program in camden, i'm sending you information on it, you can go this summer, just raise money from your church and then we'll pay your expenses here and you'll make enough money to get you going off to college through donations.

now.. i don't even know if i'm up for something as crazy as Camden or what i'd be useful for there.. but just hearing- "you can do it, make it happen for yourself, i'll help" sounded so wonderful to me. and i sat there and thought... well if i could really not work this summer, i'd love to go explore the bounds of songwriting/performing/driving around with the CDs i hope to mass produce in the near future....





finally promoted that in my blog! lol. i loved sitting in at this open discussion at my church as well. tony was talking about college or something and how you'll forget most of the stuff you learn and that its important to major in "people not subjects." and i loved hearing THAT too... i mean that's what i DO, i major in PEOPLE, relationships, conversations, learning, listening to real people with real stories and real passion. even studying english is like... literature about people and their struggles/triumphs/thoughts/experiences. so tony also does motivational speaking and even though this wasnt one of his motivational speeches, and he talked mostly about important political issues and where religion comes in to play with all of them... i definitely felt very motivated while listening to go out and do something good in the world. it's not enough to see all thats wrong with america and the system and society.. one has to engage and change something. i still feel so distant from christianity that it's hard to picture myself engaging in evangelical mission work. so i don't know where to go from here, but there is much that can be done with these moments. i'm all about that NOW thing. (saying yes to the moment is saying yes to eternity.. go watch "waking life" if you wanna know more about that statement). i basically want to LIVE each day fully without limiting myself.

so all this mind-stimulation is wonderful... and at the same time making studying for AP tests seem like a sluggish activity i'd rather not engage in right now! something tells me it's going to work out, i do feel bad for how much money these tests cost, but there's more to life than money, and that is damn good to know.

so if you want to free yourself of $10, it'll help me mass-produce my lovely CD this June. post a comment, send me an email with your name and address, we'll get this thing rolling together.

if you haven't re-evaluated what you could be doing with your life, now is the perfect opportunity. i see a whole lot in store for myself and its up to me to make it happen. and who knows? maybe i will go chill with poor people and help out. i would like to see some more good in the world and that kind of thing might just have to start right here in my actions. it's worth considering the different directions our lives can go based on our decisions.


Jodi